How Shall I Love You
In your eyes is the autumnal blue,
like a field of lavender flowers in a summer sky;
the seeds of winter lies waiting for the sun
to shine upon its lingering, withering leaves
and close the window of your heart with flowers;
to the slayers of time and space, here’s a sword
that slices against the hate of your soul.
There is no storm to discard your light,
neither will thunder and lightning show
the violent winds to turn on the darkness
and make the world black and dark.
Such is the confidence I have in you,
that this love shining in your eyes
will not dim the brightness of my life
but spark the latent beauty in your soul.
I know that your heart is larger than the sky
and so is the vastness of your divine love,
like the breadth of the star-spangled universe
that I will possess the sky if I possess you,
the moon, the stars and the tender firmaments.
all that dwells within you belongs to me,
your fire-like smiles, lawns of laughter,
house of light that keeps your face bright,
green fields of glass and rivers of rubber,
will no more torment me with gloating
but glide through the caves of darkness
into a blackness that burn with fierceness.
Like a man not born for burning,
I shall love you with the scab of my soul
and nothing boils my blood but your peace.

Jonathan Chibuike Ukah is a Pushcart-nominated poet living in the United Kingdom. His poems have been featured in Pangyrus Lit, The Pierian, Propel Magazine, Atticus Review, The Journal of Undiscovered Poets and elsewhere. He won the third Prize in the Voices of Lincoln Poetry Contest in 2024 and the Alexander Pope Poetry Award in 2023. He was the Editor’s Choice Prize Winner of Unleash Lit in 2024. He was the Second Poetry Prize Winner at the Streetlights Poetry Prize in 2024 and Winner of the Poet of the Month December-January 2025 at the Literary Shark Poetry Contest.